The great RBS giveaway

The taxpayer owned bank, RBS, has stated it will not repossess a property where people are as far as six months in arrears.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7757840.stm

I'm not convinced this is a great idea. I spent a long time working for a mortgage company and one of the first things I learnt was that customers will jump on any given bandwagon that appears to offer a way out of their plight. In 1992, it was dodgy companies charging thousands of pounds saying they could arrange for the lender to claim the difference between the debt due and the outstanding balance through the Mortgage Insurance Guarantee (MIG) policy many lenders insisted on for higher loan-to-value (LTV) properties. This led to a flood of customers sending their keys back with a standard letter advising the lender they should claim for any sums due through their MIG policies. These customers had a rude awakening as not only had they paid sometimes thousands in fees to these dodgy companies (who were fairly quickly outlawed), but the policy cover did not extend to this and the customers ended up being pursued for the debt anyway. Bankruptcy was rife.

RBS have now given the green light to customers basically electing to take a six month holiday should they wish. Whilst there will undoubtedly be cases where this is helpful, there will be a greater proportion where customers simply take the piss. RBS will then find themselves with a big book of delinquent loans and repossession will have to happen - at a time when the debt has grown and, in the current housing climate, property prices will have dropped further, pushing LTVs well above 100%. Customers will then find themselves homeless and still being chased for a debt. Bankruptcy will become rife again. And let's not forget, this is tax payers money RBS are playing with in a most profligate way.

HBOS may have to follow suit as they also took tax-payers money.

Arrears recovery procedures have come a long way since 1992 (we used to send customers Christmas cards basically saying forget buying presents, make sure your mortgage is paid) and are a lot fairer now but the simple fact is that many people (potentially me included) will find themselves - possibly through no fault of their own - unable to pay. In these cases an earlier repossession is the lesser of two evils, especially for the customer. You would simply not believe the number of houses we repossessed where there was a brand new car in the driveway and all the latest electrical gadgetry in the house - far too many people with mortgages have a skewed sense of where their primary fiscal obligations lie.

It is incumbent on lenders as a whole to find a better solution than repossession - "rent-back" schemes, partnerships with Housing Associations etc. must surely be better in the long run, but both the lenders and Government are dragging their heels over the introduction over them. I'll have a bet that the more sensible lenders out there (such as Nationwide) will not make such a guarantee; after all, they had no need for the government bail-out and they should not feel obliged to alter their business model, which has proved to be robust.

P.S. I see RBS are also planning to give back overdraft fees if it loses the current test case.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7759054.stm

It seems most odd that now they have been given £billions of our money, they are in an awful hurry to give it all back, before they know it they will be back at square one - begging for more money to stay afloat.

Dreaming

After a good few beers last night, I retired to bed and woke up this morning fairly fresh.

The usual routine of getting the papers and then having breakfast ensued. Thumbing through these papers convinced me that I must still be asleep as I was seemingly reading the fiction of my worst nightmares:-

1. The fuller story of how a politician spent six hours in police custody for doing no more than his job (like him or loathe him).

2. Another scandal where it appears Social Workers had ample opportunity to do something, but didn't - whether or not they followed the obviously flawed procedures is not the point, common sense and decency should have prevailed.

3. Big back garden = Pikey Park. No comment required, I'll sell up and buy a flat.

4. "I'm a waste of space, pay me money to sit in a fuckin' campsite in Australia and call it entertainment" covering far too many column inches.

5. "Crime predictive CCTV cameras". They will decide I am about to commit a crime because I am walking slowly...hmm...that's concrete evidence obviously. Forget the fact that I have may have buggered my leg up trying to kick start a belligerent old Triumph T110...

So where, exactly, is this country going?

Well, from my perspecitive, it seems to be going down the shitter quicker than big houses with big gardens in Essex. How much longer will the majority of decent, hard-working people put up with this constant attrition of all the values, civil liberties and the quality of life we have worked so hard for? Why should the feckless wastrels be cut a piece of the pie I paid for? Why should we allow the Mother of All Parliaments to be implicit in tactics that are reminiscent of Soviet Russia?
Why should we read about an English Josef Fritzl when so much money is spent (wasted) in Social Services?

And why can I not hobble up the road to my local pub with being branded a potential criminal?

I shall have more beers tonight and hope that when I wake up tomorrow, the nightmare will have gone and that it was all a bad dream.

But I very much doubt it.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7r8QPTavweI

Starting to lose it.

So...after a lovely walk (and a few beers) round Parliament least week, I found myself in a post euphoria fugue and the news today snaps me out of it like an acid bath.

I am talking about "Baby P".

Sixty visits by "so-called" experts and this defenceless child dies in pain that I cannot imagine. And yet at Parliament, Cameron asks a half decent question and is given a series of the usual "executive summary" has been issued, "lessons will be learnt", "weaknesses have been identified" by the PM. I don't have any time for Cameron or the PM, but as usual no questions are directly answered and the whole lot will eventually be forgotten about until the next one dies. The layer upon layer of red-tape, delegated accountability and self nest-feathering will always result in this.

And another defenceless child will die. And then another. And then another.

It all boils down to the simple fact that most Social Workers are simply incompetents who are quite happy to take the inflated salary, comfy hours and gold-plated pension, without actually helping anyone. There is always someone else to blame. I have had occasion to meet some of these people and I wouldn't employ most of them to polish my shoes. But once they have their feet under the table of public service, they turn into the green-eyed self-serving spineless loafers that are blighting this country. At least the unemployed don't do anything badly since they do nothing at all - this lot get paid a fortune to do everything badly.

The continued incompetence at all levels of government - be it social services, the economy, education, the health service, law and order, transport, the mere fact that they could actually put people like Blears, Balls and Harperson in positions of power, is testament to troughing nature of pretty much all politicians.

They care only of themselves, never you. Remember that. It might keep you ahead of the game, at least for a while.

In the meantime, I am asking my biochemist friend to invent a sort of Myximotosis for Social Workers. It is only right.

Oh dear.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1071643/Student-drank-death-downing-half-litre-vodka-just-20-minutes.html

Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.

This is not proper news, people have been dying from over-drinking for centuries. I came close myself, as did my mate, circa 1994

It happens. Ten years later I nearly died when the motorcycle I was doing about 165 mph on, bounced off a Citroen BX16 that joined the Autoroute at a severe rate of knots, half sideways and obviously piloted by a pissed native. To hit the motorway and go across three lanes takes some doing. We both survived. But if I hadn't, it wouldn't have made the papers.

Proper journalism must now concentrate on the absolute carnage - financially and socially - that surrounds us.

Or is this a part of the overall dumbing-down?

Technology. It's great.

There was a thing in the paper today stating how they can now use "key chips" to stop half-witted American teenagers crashing their cars. Personally, I couldn't give a fuck if they all burned in petroleum fuelled pyres. We ain't talking about losing a cure to cancer here.

However, this "new" invention has worrying undertones. And I'm not talking about a shite paddy band with a Fenian lead singer...

Parents can now control the speed of the car that their fat spawn drive as well as controlling the volume of the stereo and alert if seat belts aren't worn. Not a bad idea, if saving offal is a priority.

But let us think about where this could go...once the chip is advanced enough...

A chip WILL be inserted into you at birth. You will not know it, but for the rest of your life, you will be a moronic hanger-on to whatever government will be in power. Your life will be dictated by them and you will know no better than to agree.

Life everyday for you will be a bed of roses as you will know not what roses are, nor have the ability to miss the real ones. You will be no better than a Veal Calf and - in the same way - only really enlightened when the knife cuts your throat and your miserable life drains away from you.

All governments will, shortly, use technology against the people they are supposed to look after, to purely ensure their end game is achieved. They have absolutely NO interest in the well-being of most of their electorate. Troughing is all.

Fight the machine.

Fuck them at every stage - argue everything, demand figures under the FOI act, get them to explain every penny of the fucking vast fortunes I - and you - have paid for shite services, Lazy Welsh inbreeds claiming everything, health care for heroin-addled Glasgwegian pissants that have stabbed their mothers and vagrant fathers. Get them to explain how nearly £2,000 per year means I get my bin emptied once a week? And about fuck all else - where does the rest go?

Layers and layers of red-tape is where it goes. Mindless morons on gold-plated pensions, too thick to help, but too greedy to change - it is we, the fully-witted that have unintentionally created this. Probably in the sake of diversity or some shite. Bollox. Morons should be licking car windows clean, not running public services. Or Governments. Fight. For the sake of my country.

The value of a "local" pub.

The "broken society" is well documented. We have probably seen it all with our own eyes, to varying degrees.

There are probably many factors attributing to it - not least is the "money for nothing" world we live in. That is a separate issue on this occasion and for the purposes of this.

Put this to one side and I believe that a fair percentage of the problems we now face are due to the death of the local pub. These are rare nowadays - you are more likely to have to engage in a noisy, chrome decked affair where the sole purpose is to take as much money off you as is possible and then leave the local constabulary to pick up the pieces.

I am fortunate to have local pub in what, I class, is the good old meaning of it. During the evenings, it is mainly occupied by males who have just finished a day's work - they will be tired and occasionally irritable, but overall their mood will be pleasant and I know for a fact that I can arrange any amount of building works, gardening, car mechanics, IT help, financial advice and more all for the price of buying them a quick pint. We drink here despite it being the most expensive pub in the area.This arrangement is reciprocal to all. If you want cheap, go to O'Neills or Wankerspoons.

The "significant others" are always welcomed, as are any children (outside only, of course...).

Many long-term relationships have been formed and the overall sense of community crackles in the air. Everyone has a vested interest in looking out for everyone else. And it works.

Compare this to a few miles up the road - a bigger town, but utterly devoid of such manners and respect for one another. Respect has to be earned, but in that town, respect is neither sought nor offered. SM1 is Surrey's Wild West and if you were to enter an establishment there, you'd best have your wits about you. The simple reason is the pubs - cash cows, only out for a quick buck before the franchise is sold to the next idiotic theme nightmare and the cycle continues. All this does is encourage a herd of booze fuelled fuckwits looking for cheap thrills, loose knickers and a fight.

Society is built on mutual assistance and trust. This happens in a good local, but not in trendy bars where the primary focus is on looking good and seeing how many beers you can shove down your neck before closing time.

The banning of smoking has obviously not helped one iota, as an awful lot of the locals are older men - men with great stories and a lifetime of hard graft - who were used to smoking as and when they see fit; - and most have more decency and sense of community than the combined lager fuelled offal further up the road.

Local pubs should be encouraged. Poncey pubs should be napalmed along with the scumfucks that drink in them.

Give me back my proper pubs. Give me back the society I was brought up in. And give me back the England I still misguidedly cherish.

My first rant, circa 1992.

Law and order 1992

A policeman is shot dead in Clapham, the Anti-Nazi league tear parts of East London to shreds and a wealthy woman is rammed off the road and robbed of all her jewellery. There does not appear to be much law and order about.

I have a solution. Some may think these measures extreme, however, it is the only way to rid the world of murderers, rapists, bank robbers and life assurance salesmen: At the age of 17 every human being is to be given an IQ test. Anyone who achieves a score of less than 95 will either be vasectomised or sterilised, depending on their dangly bits. A generation or two will pass before the benefits become apparent, but just imagine if this had been done 50 years ago:-

1. The arse wipe who snapped the side mirror off my car would be no more than a wank stain on his father's sheets.
2. Lloyd Grossman would not invade my living room on an all too frequent bases.
3. The Suzuki GSX550EF would never have gone into production. Becuase it's slow. And girls ride it.
4. Referring to 1 above, cretinous halfwits who do not have the intelligence to earn their own living and see fit to take the fruits of normal peoples endeavours, would be eradicated. Car and building contents insurance would fall to more reasonable levels. And my brother would get paid so much.
5. I wouldn't have to listen to my colleagues inane ramblings.
6. Deferred Interest mortgages would never have been invented.

"There must be down sides, mustn't there?" I hear you shout, "...who'll sweep the roads or work for London Underground if there are no stupid people about?"This popular belief is, to be honest, bollox. There are already too many people in Britain to ever make full employment possible again and I certainly wouldn't mind working for London Underground if the calibre of the passengers improved to my level.

But, I must concede, there will be disadvantages:

1. I wouldn't keep winning lots of money on Trivia Quiz machines.
2. Arsenal Football Club would go bust.
3. Most of Wales would be incapable of propogation (is this a disadvantage?)
4. As would most of our Accounts Department.

Get your knitting needles and scissors out, we have work to do...